כַּיָּס (kayas) — pickpocket
Etymology
כַּיָּס is one of the many Hebrew coinages associated with Itamar Ben-Avi, the son of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and the self-proclaimed "first Hebrew child." Ben-Avi was a prolific journalist and coiner of words, though the attribution of many words credited to him remains uncertain. The story of כַּיָּס is one of the few whose origin has been recorded with specific circumstances.
According to a posthumous memoir published in 1934 (approximately 90 years after the events described), Ben-Avi was one night working with the typesetter in the pressroom of his newspaper Doar HaYom when he found a spare line in a column. He noticed a two-line headline reading "מַאֲסָר חֲמִשָּׁה חֳדָשִׁים לְגַנְבֵי כִּיס" (Five months imprisonment for pocket thieves). He paced back and forth briefly, then called out to the typesetter: "Give me in one line: מַאֲסָר חֲמִשָּׁה חֳדָשִׁים לְכַיָּסִים." The compound noun גַּנַּב כִּיס became the compact coinage כַּיָּס — a single word for pickpocket in the biblical/Mishnaic professional pattern. The following year Ben-Avi used the same derivational pattern to coin דַּוָּר (postman), from דֹּאַר (mail).
The column in which this story appears is primarily a critical assessment of Ben-Avi's broader contributions to Hebrew vocabulary. His own posthumous memoir claimed "thousands" of his coinages had been naturalized into Hebrew — described as a "wild exaggeration" by the column's author. Many words he claimed to have coined were actually coined by others: רַעֲשָׁן (noisemaker) was used by Yehuda Steinberg in 1902; סְבִיבוֹן (dreidel) was claimed by David Isaiah Zilberbush in 1897; and סִפְרִיָּה (library) appears to have been coined by Yechiel Michal Pines in 1900. His coinage of תַּקְרִית (incident) was particularly complicated: he used it in 1918 to mean "episode," it wasn't adopted, it was reintroduced in 1951 by Hillel HaRoshanim, and Moshe Sharett then claimed to have coined it in 1952.
Nevertheless, Ben-Avi's genuine coinages are significant and numerous. Among them: עִתּוֹנוּת (journalism), עִתּוֹנַאי (journalist), רִאֲיֵן (to interview), הִתְרַאֲיֵן (to be interviewed), בִּטָּאוֹן (bulletin), מְכוֹנִית (automobile, 1919), סֶרֶט (film, 1920), עַצְמָאִי (independent, 1920), אוֹפַנּוֹעַ (motorcycle, 1931), תַּקְדִּים (precedent, 1922), and כַּיָּס itself.
Key Quotes
"הוא העיף עין על... כותרת בת שתי שורות: ׳מאסר חמישה חדשים לגנבי כיס׳. התהלך רגע אנה ואנה, ופתאום קריאה אל הסדר: ׳הב לי, בשורה אחת: מאסר חמשה חדשים לכייסים׳" — From a memorial book about Itamar Ben-Avi, 1934
"ואלפים מיצירותי התאזרחו כבר" — Itamar Ben-Avi, claiming thousands of coinages in his posthumous memoir (1961)
Timeline
- 1934: כַּיָּס coined by Itamar Ben-Avi in Doar HaYom under press deadline pressure
- 1935: Ben-Avi uses the same derivational pattern to coin דַּוָּר (postman)
- 1961: Ben-Avi's posthumous memoir published, containing broad claims about his coinages
Related Words
- כִּיס — pocket, purse; the source noun for this derivation
- גַּנַּב כִּיס — earlier compound meaning pickpocket; replaced by כַּיָּס
- דַּוָּר — postman; coined by Ben-Avi 1935 using the same pattern
- מְכוֹנִית — automobile; coined by Ben-Avi 1919
- עַצְמָאִי — independent; coined by Ben-Avi 1920
- תַּקְדִּים — precedent; coined by Ben-Avi 1922